Description
Created in 1956, The Drawbridge of Oceanus by Harold Town is a pictorially and materially inventive work combining elements of print, painting, and collage. Both allegorical and abstract, the composition draws on Greek mythology, inviting the viewer to cross the drawbridge and Oceanus toward the underworld beyond. Dark green serves both as the ground and as an abstracted ocean, while Town’s hand-executed collage is a distinctive feature within the history of his mixed media works.
Product Details
- Artist: Harold Town
- Title: The Drawbridge of Oceanus
- Date: 1956
- Medium: Single autographic print
- Style/Design: Abstract and allegorical work incorporating elements of print, painting, and collage
- Subject/Influence: Greek mythology, including Oceanus and the underworld
- Signature: Signed and dated 1956 in the lower margin
- Dimensions: 23” x 19” / 29” x 24”
Artist Background
Harold Town remains one of the most accomplished and fascinating figures associated with the Painters Eleven collective. Nicknamed the “Picasso of Canada,” his reputation extended beyond the group as one of Canada’s most versatile and inventive artists of the 20th century, continually reinventing his aesthetic and shifting between mediums and moods.
As Canada established greater professionalism and national support for the arts, including the founding of the Canada Council for the Arts in 1957, Town was considered by the mid-1960s to be one of Canada’s most accomplished artists alongside Jean-Paul Riopelle. He became an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1958, received an honorary doctorate from York University in 1966, and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1968. His retrospective exhibitions included the Art Gallery of Windsor in 1975 and the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1986.
Its combination of abstraction, mythology, and mixed media makes it a distinctive work for a Canadian art collection or curated interior.
Specifications
Category
Decorative Arts
Gender
Unisex